José Eli da Veiga

Economia política da qualidade

biosfera. Daí porque qualquer avaliação razoável da prosperidade tenderá a exigir não somente uma medida de desempenho econômico que supere as anacrônicas e obsoletas medidas de produto bruto (seja ele interno ou nacional, PIB ou PNB). Exigirá também a utilização simultânea de mais dois indicadores: um sobre a qualidade de vida viabilizada pelo desempenho econômico, e outro sobre a sustentabilidade ambiental desse processo.

Evolução darwiniana & ciências sociais

This article is a synthesis of the main results obtained in a thematic cycle with the same title which was coordinated by the author during 2007 as one of the public activities of the University of Sao Paulos Institute of Advanced Studies. It is also an introduction to the three o other contributions to this dossier: the articles from professors Ricardo Waizbort (Fiocruz) and Mario Possas (UFRJ), and the especial interview with professor Geoffrey Hodgson (University of Hertfordshire, UK).

COP-15 and the ethics of climate change

The paper makes an effort to incorporate the sustainability criterion into the UNFCCC common but differentiated responsibilities ethical platform. Three fundamental principles of justice arise therein: historical responsibility, present capacity and sustainability. Any attempt to determine responsibility towards climate change mitigation must consider these criteria. In order to operationalize their assessment a synthetic responsibility index is calculated for 177 countries. This in a necessary tool for the policy design effort that will be carried out during COP-15 and subsequent Conferences of Parties. It provides an objective method for distributing responsibilities. But the authors see no possibility that an effective agreement can be achieved among almost 200 nations without a previous compromise among the twenty highly responsible parties that accounted for 85,7% of 2004 emissions. Luckily, this group coincides almost perfectly with the existing political group that tends to become the most important locus of world governance, the G20.